In July 2015, the Ministry of Manpower issued Regulation of the Minister No. 16 of 2015, regarding the Standard Procedure for the Control and Procurement of Foreign Workers.

Under this regulation, the ratio of foreign to local workers was raised to 1:10 and the minimum working experience for foreign workers has been raised to 5 years, and furthermore, visiting businessmen will need temporary working permits for short-time purposes. Moreover, all applications for the working permit of foreign workers shall be processed online in support of the One-Stop System for the application of foreign investment in Indonesia.

Although the government has expressed its intention to optimize the local working force to help fight unemployment as well as the local economy, the regulation has raised questions among business players as the implications it may bring for the foreign investment climate in Indonesia. In addition, investors has been questioning the effectiveness of the new online system which was originally supposed to strengthen the One-Stop Application System, but has proven to be problematic.

The objective of this Forum Group Discussion is to communicate and explain the new Regulation of the Ministry of Manpower as well as to provide a platform to discuss issues regarding the procurement of foreign workers in Indonesia. This Discussion will also seek to understand the government’s policy as well as the opinions of investors on the impact and implementation of this Regulation.